Open Letter to Brigadier-General S. Z. Kazaure, the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps -By Barr. S.J.D. Akobe

Dear Sir,

Yours sincerely in service to our fatherland salutes you with all humility!

Without wasting much time, I wish to use this medium to draw your attention to a particular Circular purportedly emanating from your exulted Office. The Circular which is dated the 14th day of September, 2016 and bears the number NYSC/NDHQ/PRS/PL/190/Vol. II/T/23, was purportedly signed by one A.C. Ani on your behalf and it is headed thus: “2015 Batch B Winding up/Passing out Approved Programme of Activities (Stream I & II)”.

An abridged content of the Circular reads thus: “I wish to inform you that Management has approved that the 2015 Batch B Winding up/Passing out should be low-key. Please, note that while Corps members of 2015 Batch B Stream I will pass out on Thursday 6th October, 2016, those of 2015 Batch B Stream II will pass out on Friday 4th November, 2016”.
After reading the above Circular, I doubted if it truly emanated from your Office or same authorized by you until it went viral with the accompanying tensions it has generated amongst the affected Corps members and other concerned citizens.

Thus, without ruling out the possibility of the information in the Circular being false, I want to bring to your notice the following crucial issues in the event that it turns out to be true:
2015 Batch B Streams I & II Corps members are one and the same batch only divided into streams for administrative/logistics convenience.
The NYSC code numbers that were given to 2015 Batch B Stream II Corps members are in continuation of those given to Stream I, attesting to the fact that they are one and the same batch.

It has never happened in the history of the NYSC since its creation in 1973 that some group of Corps members are allowed to pass out before others of the same batch even though they may have been divided into streams. As a matter of fact, the last set of Corps members (i.e. 2015 Batch A Streams I & II) that passed out on the 14th day of April, 2016, all passed out on the same day. Hence, the case of 2015 Batch B Streams I & II should not be treated differently without any reasonable and compelling justification as what is good for the goose is also good for the gander!
The NYSC Identity Cards that were given to both Streams I & II of 2015 Batch B Corps members are all due to expire on the 6th day of October, 2016. Thus, if Stream II Corps members are held back contrary to the established norm till November, they will all be parading NYSC I.D. Cards which would have become invalid by reason of expiration after the 6th day of October, 2016. That will be agonizingly ridiculous!

The Posting Letters that were given to 2015 Batch B Corps members of Streams I & II have it that the 29th day of September, 2016 is the date in which their engagements in their various Place of Primary Assignments (PPA) would terminate. Thus, if the 2015 Batch B Stream II are forced to remain in their various PPAs till November, the resultant hardship will be very unbearable as most of their Principals would consider their services terminated as from the 29th day of September, 2016 as contained in their posting letters, and will no longer be under duty to retain their services or cater for their welfare from thenceforth. Such will certainly create an analogous situation of forcing a servant on an unwilling master!

The Certificate Formats that were given to Streams I & II of 2015 Batch B, all indicate that their national service shall end in October, 2016 and not in November as unfortunately contained in the said Circular. We are left to conjecture where, how and why the demeaning idea of “passing out in November” comes to be!

Extending the service year of 2015 Batch B Stream II to November, 2016, would in effect, mean that they will be forced to do their national service for thirteen (13) Months instead of twelve (12) Months which has become the established norm since the inception of the NYSC scheme.

In view of the above and several other unimaginable difficulties including accommodation challenges which 2015 Batch B Stream II Corps members will eventually suffer if their service year is extended to November, 2016, I humbly implore you to bear in mind the imminent plights and the anomalous situations it will create if the decision to extend their service year is not reversed. I count on you!

Yours sincerely in service to our wailing Country, Nigeria!

S. J. D. Akobe, a Legal Practitioner, lives in Abuja.